February 22, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
TAX WATCH
An IRS advisory committee is seeking feedback from charity officials and legal experts on whether the tax agency should create a new program for tax-exempt organizations that would encourage them to come forward when they discover problems with their informational tax returns or other filings.
The effort would give nonprofit officials a way to disclose errors or instances of wrongdoing in the hope of receiving a lesser punishment for the offense than if the IRS had discovered the problems.
A formal “voluntary compliance” program would ensure more even-handed treatment of charities that come forward to report wrongdoing, according to Betsy Buchalter Adler, a San Francisco lawyer who represents charities and sits on the IRS advisory committee. Currently, individual agents may have different interpretations of IRS policy to decide how to treat charities that tell the agency about problems, and whether to waive or reduce penalties.
The IRS Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities asks for ideas on what subjects might be covered by such a program, and whether charities would be willing to pay a fee to participate.
The survey is available at http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB225XPBGG55G.
